Backgrounds Suggest New Wichita Abortionists Would Be Dangers To The Public

Legislature asked to help protect women by passing clinic standards with teeth

UPDATE Feb. 15, 2011: Linhardt has quit his abortion training and dropped plans to open an abortion business in Wichita or anywhere else. We are grateful for his decision and wish him the best. -OR Staff

Wichita, KS — Two abortionists who are each planning to open abortion clinics in Wichita sometime later this year may pose a hidden danger that could be easily underestimated by Kansas authorities and the public, including possibility that they will neglect to report cases of suspected child sexual abuse.

Mila Means and Gregory S. Linhardt both have very recent and troubling personal problems that have been shown to bleed over into the professional lives of other abortionists with similar problems. More red flags wave over the fact that they are both in training at a notoriously seedy abortion mill with an elderly abortionist who has a sketchy past.

“We are not talking about the best doctors in town opening modern, well-staffed offices. We are talking about professionally troubled and financially strapped people whose specialty of care does not involve gynecology doing abortions in offices with old equipment and inexperienced staff,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

“Desperation for money and a lack of experience are prescriptions for disaster. We are urging the Kansas Legislature to enact laws that will insure that these people cannot open up what would amount to unsafe abortion ‘chop shops’ that have no accountability to the law.”

Dangers to the Public

The background of Means and Linhardt raises serious questions about what their potential new abortion businesses will look like. Concerns include:

• Inexperience and shoddy training that could result in botched abortions and inadequate emergency care.
• Substandard clinic conditions and equipment.
• Financial pressures that could lead to doing abortions on women who are coerced or forced.
• Non-reporting of suspected child sex abuse.
• Quackery through the improper use of nutty psychiatric or metaphysical philosophies on emotionally vulnerable women.

Unprofessional conduct and garnishment of wages

Mila Means, also known as Mila Holmes, is no stranger to professional trouble. In April 2007, Means was disciplined by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts for unprofessional conduct by having an improper personal relationship with one of her patients who had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She eventually married him, but continued a doctor-patient relationship with him and other members of his immediate family. While some of Means’ disciplinary record has been redacted, it appears in context to refer to offenses that were sexual in nature.

Means has had documented problems with setting personal boundaries with patients and has misused psychiatry in her family practice. This conduct is troubling, especially for someone providing such an intimate and emotional service such as abortion.

But Means problems do not stop there. Court records show that Means has defaulted on at least two credit cards to the tune of almost $30,000, which has led to the garnishment of her wages. She has also been sued for her part of the debt in a failed medical business.*

So cash-strapped is Means that she reportedly purchased older, used abortion equipment from the now-closed Women’s Health Care Services, a defunct abortion clinic once operated by late-term abortionist George Tiller. She plans to eventually use this equipment to conduct her own abortion business.

Abortionists who share Means financial problems and have similar incidents of professional misconduct tend to prey on women, especially in minority communities, and have histories of shoddy care, botched abortions, and even forced or coerced abortions. For example, California abortionist Nolan Jones took over abortion clinics that had gone out of business for various reasons. Jones had crippling debt and no money for new equipment or clinic upgrades. His abortion clinic staff was generally untrained and inexperienced. Jones had a history of botched abortions stretching over many years and preyed on women in poor Hispanic communities who were less likely to complain to the authorities. The California Medical Board finally revoked Jones’ medical license in 2009 after he falsified medical records to cover up for his shoddy work and other probation violations. Other financially troubled abortionists, such as Kansas’ own Ann Kristin Neuhaus, unwilling to let an abortion fee walk out the door, have been known to abort women who have withdrawn their consent.

“Is Mila Means another Nolan Jones or Kristin Neuhaus?” asked Newman. “That is a question that no one can afford to have answered.”

Lacking in judgment?

Gregory Linhardt, the other abortionist who wants to set up shop in Wichita is an anesthesiologist by trade. Records show that he once worked for the same medical group as his former wife, who is also an anesthesiologist. Linhardt was arrested and jailed ten months ago for violating a protective order that was sought by his ex-wife, who appears to have remarried. Linhardt does not appear to currently have regular employment outside his abortion work at Aid for Women in Kansas City, Kansas, where he is supposedly “in training.”

Linhardt’s personal relationship problems are far from uncommon among abortionists. In an extreme example, Oklahoma abortionist John Baxter Hamilton had stormy relationship with his wife, Susan, who worked with him at his abortion clinic. On Valentine’s Day, 2001, Hamilton went home and bludgeoned his wife to death with such ferocity that autopsy photos of Susan’s beaten body brought jurors to tears.

Certainly not all abortionists who have relationship issues will murder their wives. However, Linhardt has shown a troubling inability to comply with a court order involving his ex-wife that has already landed him in jail. This raises concerns about his judgment and his ability to follow the rules, both dangerous deficiencies for medical professionals in any field.

Training at troubled clinic

Both Means and Linhardt are currently receiving training in abortions at the notorious Aid for Women in Kansas City, Kansas. Among former abortionists at this clinic are Krishna Rajanna and Sherman Zaremski. Rajanna later opened his own abortion clinic that was discovered to be in violation of so many health codes, that Rajanna would eventually lose his medical license. Zaremski was involved in a Federal Court case (Aid for Women v. Foulston) that challenged the state’s mandatory child sex abuse reporting laws. Zaremski certainly practiced what he preached. He was the abortionist of record who failed to report the sexual abuse of an 11-year old girl who was brought to him for an abortion at the filthy Central Women’s Services in Wichita by her rapist and step-father, Robert Estrada. Because Zaremski did not report the abuse, that little girl was handed back to her rapist, who continued to abuse her and her sister for another four years. Estrada is now in jail, but Zaremski was never brought to justice.

Frightfully, Means and Lindhardt are being trained by Zaremski’s protégé, abortionist Ronald Yeomans, a 70-year old abortionist with a checkered past. Yeomans has worked in several states and was the subject of a number of malpractice suits that settled out of court for large monetary amounts. He is an odd person who has written about his belief in the wacky notion that bird feathers have mystical powers to heal people and help them “receive important messages from the universe.”

Legislature Must Act

From 2003-2005 the Kansas Legislature attempted to pass common sense standards that would ensure that filthy abortion “chop shops” like those operated by Krishna Rajanna and Nolan Jones could not operate in Kansas. However, in spite of overwhelming support, these bills were vetoed by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a pro-abortion activist who now heads the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In 2006, the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts established clinic guidelines that have had no impact on abortion clinics in Kansas since there is no mechanism for enforcement and no penalty for noncompliance.

There is hope that conditions that have allowed abortion clinics to operate without meaningful accountability are about to change. Last year’s midterm elections swept out the pro-abortion radicals who have protected the abortion industry and replaced them with pro-life conservatives.

Operation Rescue urges the Legislature to enact a measure similar to the 2005 clinic standards bill. This would make it impossible for cash-strapped abortionists like Means and Linhardt to cut corners that will place the lives and health of women at risk.

“Any bill that ends with ‘now you can close an abortion clinic’ is the kind of bill that is needed to prevent dangerous abortion clinics from preying on women,” said Newman. “While legislation is not our only legal option, it is probably the best option now that Kansans can count on the authorities to enforce the laws. We plan to work with lawmakers and lend all assistance we can to the legislative process to pass laws that will keep abortion clinics from opening, close existing abortion mills, and thereby protect the lives and health of women and their pre-born babies.”